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Adventures of a Mathematician

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The true story that inspired the 2020 film. 

The autobiography of mathematician Stanislaw Ulam, one of the great scientific minds of the twentieth century, tells a story rich with amazingly prophetic speculations and peppered with lively anecdotes. As a member of the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1944 on, Ulam helped to precipitate some of the most dramatic changes of the postwar world. He was among the first to use and advocate computers for scientific research, originated ideas for the nuclear propulsion of space vehicles, and made fundamental contributions to many of today's most challenging mathematical projects.

With his wide-ranging interests, Ulam never emphasized the importance of his contributions to the research that resulted in the hydrogen bomb. Now Daniel Hirsch and William Mathews reveal the true story of Ulam's pivotal role in the making of the "Super," in their historical introduction to this behind-the-scenes look at the minds and ideas that ushered in the nuclear age. An epilogue by Françoise Ulam and Jan Mycielski sheds new light on Ulam's character and mathematical originality.

388 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

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Stanislaw M. Ulam

9 books11 followers

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
49 reviews9 followers
December 21, 2012
"This was more agreeable than the present style of the research papers or books which have so much symbolism and formulae on every page. I am turned off when I see only formulas and symbols, and little text. It is too laborious for me to look at such pages not knowing what to concentrate on. I wonder how many other mathematicians really read them in detail and enjoy them."

This is quite remarkable coming from one of the top mathematicians of his time. His own approach to mathematics was definitely more verbal and less symbol-based.

Profile Image for Ari.
732 reviews80 followers
September 12, 2017
Stanislaw Ulam was a prominent twentieth-century mathematician, famous for inventing Monte Carlo methods -- and co-inventing the hydrogen bomb. This is not quite an autobiography. It's one part memoir, one part musings on science and mathematics, and one part character sketches and anecdotes. It originally started, not as an autobiography of Ulam, but as a memoir of his friend and colleague, John von Neumann. However, the scope grew, and it's now a long picaresque tour of Ulam's life, times, and contemporaries.

Several bits caught my attention. First, his description of childhood, college, and graduate mathematics in inter-war poland. My grandfather grew up in a similar milieu so this held personal resonance. It was emotional reading though -- most of the teachers and colleagues he mentions are tagged with "murdered by the Germans" or "died of hard circumstances in Russian exile in 1944" and the like. It was a grim time to be a Pole.

Ulam was a visiting fellow at Harvard in the United States when the war broke out -- basically a postdoc. And he had his kid brother Adam with him, who was just about to start college. When the war started, the two brothers were cut off from their family and the family money -- and Stanislaw reports how frightened and worried he was making ends meet while getting his brother into a college (Brown). Adam turned out fine, as it happens, and went on to become a prominent Sovietologist.

By 1943, Stanislaw Ulam got pulled into the Manhattan Project, and went to work in the theory group at Los Alamos. He spent the rest of his career bouncing between academic jobs and the lab. During a period at the lab, he collaborated with Edward Teller on the development of the "super." Credit for the invention is disputed -- Teller claimed at various points that the key ideas were his -- but several observers, notably Bethe, think that Ulam made the primary contributions. In Ulam's account here, he had an idea, knew it was a big important idea, told Teller, and they jointly improved it and it formed the basis of all future bombs. Ulam is coy about technical details though -- you won't learn anything about engineering a hydrogen bomb in this book.

As I mentioned, this book originally as about von Neumann, not Ulam. Von Neumann was one of the most interesting figures of the century, and Ulam was one of the few people who thought of him as a friend and an equal, not a demigod or a enfant terrible. Ulam's describes Johnny (as he calls him) as exceedingly quick and clever, but not so imaginative or bold as others -- and perhaps with a chip on his shoulder about doing applied math and quasi-math rather than many deep fundamental new mathematical discoveries.

The best of the stories is that one day, von Neumann walked into Ulam's office at Princeton to discuss a math problem and said "the goyim have proved the following theorem" -- with the implication being that "we jews should be able to prove a stronger one." Ulam repeated the joke, and apparently Banach (a "pure goy") thought it was hilarious.

Ulam has a long description of the Oppenheimer affair (and like the other scientists, felt that Oppenheimer had been treated shabbily.) He does repeat with endorsement Johnny's comment about Oppenheimer's moral feelings: "Some people profess guilt to claim credit for the sin."

The other favorite story of mine is as follows. After the war, Ulam had a very serious case of encephalitis, and was near death and unable to think. Even after his release from the hospital, he was worried he had suffered serious permanent brain damage. Erdos came to visit, and they played chess. Ulam won, but worried that Erdos was going easy on him. They played a second game, Ulam won again, and then Erdos said "okay, that's enough chess, I'm done for the night" -- and Ulam felt reassured that his partner had really been trying.

Some choice excerpts from the book are available online: http://permalink.lanl.gov/object/tr?w...
Profile Image for Alina Rozhkova.
224 reviews7 followers
April 30, 2022
Прекрасна книга, і добре написана, і сам Улям працював над дуже цікавими задачами, але дуже кріпово зараз читати про процес створення ядерної і водневої бомб 😨
Profile Image for Nataliya Borys.
31 reviews
October 24, 2017
Прочитала я книгу видатного математика, одного з авторів водневої бомби, польського єврея зі Львова, Станіслава Уляма, «Пригоди математика». Народився у Львові в заможній єврейській сім'ї львівського адвоката Юзефа Уляма, нащадка переселенців з Венеції. Його мати, Ганна Ауербах, народилася в Стрию, невеликому містечку близько 60 миль на південь від Львова, біля Карпатських гір. Її батько був промисловцем, який займався сталлю і був представником заводів в Галичині та Угорщині.

Як молодий амбітний математик, звичайно ж, задавав тон у «Шотландській каварні» (Kawiarnia Szkocka), де найбільші польські математики сиділи при каві та коньяку, розв'язуючи задачі й записуючи розв’язки спочатку на дошці столика, а потім у відомому зошиті в клітинку, званому «Шотландською Книгою» (Księgą Szkocką). Після війни Улям переклав її англійською й уславив у всьому світі.

Мені дуже хотілось почитати про міжвоєнний Львів, про відоме коло львівських математиків, але на жаль Станіслав Улям дуже мало про це написав. Також він не згадує ні словом про долю своїх батьків, які залишились у Львові під час Голокосту, ні про сам Голокост, ні про своїх друзів євреїв, ні про долю євреїв, ні про свою єврейкість. Ніби все це не відбувалось ніколи в його житті. Так жаль….
Profile Image for Paul Conroy.
65 reviews11 followers
November 8, 2016
Fascinating look into the mind of a genius!

Stan Ulam documents growing up in Lwow, Poland, how he became enchanted by math, and would ultimately go on to be the father of the H-Bomb, in Los Alamos. Along the way he wrote countless papers, but is probably best known for discovering the "Monte Carlo Method", today much used in statistical analysis.
Profile Image for David.
259 reviews29 followers
December 12, 2007
Ulam didn't write this book; he dictated it. It was a good tactic for him, and the result is a book with a lot of personality. Ulam has long been a hero of mine, and he lived through a lot of interesting stories. Worth reading if you enjoy biography, even if you know nothing of mathematics.
Profile Image for Kyle.
353 reviews
November 13, 2023
Ulam lived a very interesting life and was a very creative mathematician who made important physics contributions, too. This book is a nice autobiography, and also gives a flavor of Ulam's thoughts on all of the great mathematicians and physicists he met, as well as his own thoughts on creativity in math and the sciences. It is both an interesting and stimulating read for those interested in math/physics progress in the 20th century, and esp. for those interested in Los Alamos history.
74 reviews
December 15, 2021
Imagine having had such an interesting life but not the sensibility to write about it well. Tragic. But oh, to be perfectly content with such half-baked ethics!
Profile Image for Maurizio Codogno.
Author 29 books139 followers
January 12, 2012
Questa è la seconda autobiografia di un matematico polacco che ho letto ultimamente, dopo quella di Mark Kac (vedi http://xmau.com/notiziole/arch/200812... ). Ulam era a Los Alamos nel progetto Manhattan, ed è stato uno degli sviluppatori della bomba H; insomma non esattamente l'ultimo arrivato. Però il libro non mi è affatto piaciuto. Non è tanto il problema dell'incomprensibilità della matematica che ha fatto, anche se garantisco che gli accenni presenti non danno assolutamente alcun appiglio a chi non sappia già le cose; però quegli accenni si possono tranquillamente saltare. Il guaio maggiore è che c'è un'enorme discontinuità nei temi trattati, e aneddoti francamente inutili sono messi esattamente allo stesso livello di altri punti ben più importanti; anche le considerazioni filosofiche e cognitive che di quando in quando appaiono mi sembrano fuori posto nel libro, forse anche perché la traduzione è piuttosto pesante anche se corretta. In definitiva, un libro non all'altezza di quanto sperassi.
35 reviews
November 13, 2017
Świetna autobiografia, praktycznie zapomnianego u nas wybitnego polskiego naukowca.
Profile Image for Lada Moskalets.
343 reviews51 followers
March 11, 2024
Оскільки у „Оппенгаймера” теж свято, то напишу про цю книжку, яку я закінчила читати два дні тому. Це спогади математика Станіслава Уляма, який народився у Львові, але прожив більшість життя у Штатах і допомагав розробляти атомну бомбу у Лос-Аламосі. Попри поважні заняття і статус, цей пан був дотепним письменником і написав жваву історію, хоча й пересипану математичними міркуваннями.
Я почала читати книжку в поїзді до Варшави, минаючи місце концтабору у Белжці, де вбили стількох євреїв Галичини. Станіслава Уляма, єврея з акультурованої родини правників, банкірів та архітекторів мала чекати така сама доля, як і інших талановитих людей Львова. Втім, він з самої юності розумів, що у Львові в нього не буде великих шансів на кар’єру. В місті зосереджувалося багато здібних науковців, які працювали в університетах за мізерні копійки і підпрацьовували вчителями в гімназіях - тобто все як зараз.
Йому подобалося львівське середовище і розмірений напівбогемний стиль життя, коли математики цілими днями сиділи у кав’ярнях і писали по ночах - і все життя в Штатах Улям намагатиметься знайти відповідник такого невимушеного форуму. Але після студій він, спершу за гроші батьків, а потім на стипендіях їде до Англії і до Штатів, де досліджує і викладає в найкращих університетах.
Розділ про 1939 рік для мене був найважчим - в повітрі вже відчувається війна, але як і в нашому випадку про неї говорили більше в Америці, ніж у Польщі, де надіялися на краще. Улям приїхав на канікули і забрав до Штатів молодшого брата, розминувшись з війною на декілька днів. Наукове середовище тоді було мобільне, як і тепер і м��не дуже зачепила історія варшавського математика Альфреда Тарського, який виїхав на конференцію до Штатів і коли почалася війна, його дружина і діти були в Польщі. Вони всі загинули, а він так і не повернувся зі Штатів до Польщі. Для поляків і польських євреїв, які врятувалися від війни, але втратили колишню батьківщину і лишилися в непевності, без грошей і часто без надії на роботу через шалену конкуренцію це були тяжкі часи і Улям згадує про один випадок самогубства. Звісно ще страшніші часи настали у Європі, де вчених розстрілювали чи морили у концтаборах.
Втім, більшість книги про роботу в американських університетах, Лос-Аламос і бесіди з іншими математиками. Мені ця книжка багато пояснила про те, як польські емігранти успішно інтегровувалися в американське середовище, завдяки талантам і адаптивності. Це прекрасне джерело для дослідження нетворкингу серед науковців. Про Оппенгаймер він згадує рідко, радше як про людину з трохи зірковою хворобою, яка не дуже хотіла, щоб хтось його перевершив. Про атомну і водневу бомбу Улям писав дуже оптимістично, вважаючи, що вони завершать всі війни - але розробляти йому їх подобалося просто заради мистецтва.
Попри те, що складно знайти два більш несхожі на себе міста ніж постгабсбурзький цукерковий Львів і збитий нашвидкоруч з дощок посеред пустелі Лос-Аламос, Уляму було назатишніше саме в цих місцях. Він був товариською людиною, яка любила життя, смачну їжу і розмови та плітки з колегами, а саме у Львові і Лос-Аламосі цього було найбільше.
Profile Image for Eric.
171 reviews2 followers
March 12, 2022
Un livre intéressant qui donne un bon panorama de la science et des mathématiques au XXème siècle. J'ai particulièrement aimé le début du livre qui narre l'enfance de Stanislas Ulam dans la ville de Lviv (alors en Autriche-Hongrie, puis en Pologne - actuellement une ville ukrainienne -). Dans cette partie, le récit est à la fois sincère, contient des anecdotes historique et retranscrit bien l'atmosphère des lieux. Cela m'a fait penser au début du livre sur Erdös "The man who loved only numbers". Il est resté marqué par le décès aux mains des nazis de nombres de ses collègues mathématiciens qui n'ont pas pu comme lui partir en Amérique avant le déclenchement de la deuxième guerre mondiale.

Stanislas Ulam finit sa carrière aux États-Unis. Je trouve la partie finale du livre moins intéressante car elle se résume souvent à un "Who is who" des mathématiques (j'étais souvent invité par untel, qui a travaillé avec telautre, etc...). Cependant le livre contient de très bonne pages. Je pense notamment à ce qui relate son amitié avec Von Neumann, mais aussi les pages où il dit au revoir à son ami Fermi.

J'attendais quelque chose des pages où il a travaillé à Los Alamos, mais j'ai finalement été un peu déçu. Ulam a quand même un point de vue intéressant sur son travail sur les bombes nucléaires, puisque contrairement à certains, il reconnaît n'éprouver aucun remords. Il dit s'intéresser en premier lieu au développement de la science et pas nécessairement de son usage, et considère qu'il est dans la nature humaine de chercher certaines réponses et de découvrir ces technologies, et dans ce cas, autant que ce soit lui plutôt qu'un autre.

J'ai par contre été heureux de retrouver Erdös, en particulier le passage où Stanislas Ulam a fait une grave maladie du cerveau et Erdös vient passer quelques temps chez lui pour s'assurer qu'il a encore toutes ses facultés mathématiques.

Un des points forts de cette autobiographie c'est l'humour un peu pince sans rire et l'érudition de l'auteur. Par contre, ce livre se concentre surtout sur son travail et ses relations mathématiques et n'évoque presque jamais sa vie privée.

Pour conclure, je dirais que ce livre est une curiosité et regorge de détails et d'anecdotes intéressante pour qui se concentre sur le monde mathématique de cette époque. Mais je ne dirais pas que c'est un incontournable.
Profile Image for Tibor Stanko.
8 reviews11 followers
June 11, 2018
Ulam's life was undeniably fascinating. I'm hesitant to give four stars because the book was at times not an easy read – it often felt like it would benefit from a more thorough editing.

That said, the book is still worth reading, especially if you want to know more about the background of the Manhattan project and the birth of computers. Not from the technical point of view though: Ulam uses the technical jargon very sparsely, but what I found interesting is his account of people he has met and worked with throughout the years: Banach, von Neumann, Fermi, Erdos and many others.

Ulam prompts the reader to think about some of the brightest minds of the 20th century not merely as geniuses, but as humans, with all their strengths and weaknesses.
Then I was introduced to Einstein himself and noticed his rather peculiar English. He would say: "He is a very good formula," pointing at something on the blackboard! (p.71)

I have found the philosophical passages of the book (i.e. Random reflections) a bit long, but at the same time containing many valuable thoughts on math, science, and language.
It is a truism to say that there is a clarity to French which is not there in other tongues, and I suppose this makes a difference in the mathematical and scientific literature. Thoughts are steered in different ways. In French generalizations come to my mind and stimulate me toward conciseness and simplification. In English one sees the practical sense; German tends to make one go for a depth which is not always there. (p.275)
I am turned off when I see only formulas and symbols, and little text. It is too laborious for me to look at such pages not knowing what to concentrate on. I wonder how many other mathematicians really read them in detail and enjoy them. (p.275)
Profile Image for Rafaela.
13 reviews11 followers
February 7, 2024
It's a very nice biography with fun anecdotes, insights about the scientific community, and reflections about technology and mathematics. My favorite parts were the ones about Ulam's close friendship with von Neumann. It was also very interesting to know more about the Polish school of mathematics, even though I don't know much about math and couldn't understand some parts, especially the final chapter that focus exclusively on it. And for me, Ulam is particularly interesting due to his very extroverted, optimistic nature, which affected the way he did mathematics, and I was quite happy to see how he managed to do some of his best work after almost dying of encephalitis.

Overall, reading this book was a very nice, enjoyable experience and Ulam is definitely an underrated scientist (in popular non-mathematical circles, I mean). I've been meaning to read von Neumann's biography too and I hope it has more insight into their friendship.
Profile Image for Ivan Mylyanyk.
14 reviews9 followers
November 4, 2023
Книга дуже нагадала мені Та ви жартуєте, містере Фейнман! Пригоди допитливого дивака, але книга Уляма гірше структурована і більш хаотична.
Улям однозначно мав сповенене пригод життя, і було цікаво заглянути за лаштунки, але важко було тримати нитку історії коли в одному абзаці він говорить про винахід методу Монте-Карло, а в іншому вихваляється крінжовим жартом про груди співробітниці.
Якщо вам *ну дуже* сподобалася книга Фейнмана - то можна спробувати почитати пригоди математика, але в іншому випадку - не раджу.
66 reviews2 followers
August 26, 2023
One of the most brilliant mathematicians of the early 20th century Polish school. Landed in America he was soon involved in the Manhattan project by his close friend and colleague von Neumann; his contributions were numerous together with that science geek concentrated at Los Alamos. A versatile, intuitive and profound mind, capable of posing the most disparate problems.
Stan and the (mis)Adventures of a mathematician are not only a biography of a man but also an important historical cross-section of the Second World War.
Misadventures should have been the title of the book according to Stan, but the publisher prevailed!
62 reviews
January 18, 2020
A phenomenal account of the life of Ulam and many other great intellects of his time. His style is captivating, the clarity of delivery is inspiring. Content-wise, a lot can be said about the richness of his experience, the great achievements of his life, the people around him, the tragedies and more... I'll only comment that I was awestruck by the life of a genius, and certainly this has been the closest I have ever come to understanding how great scientists live their lives.
Profile Image for Luke.
952 reviews18 followers
January 15, 2021
Enjoyable recollections of a life, chronological but the bulk and emphasis is on the character of friends and colleagues that suited or complemented their mathematical and social lives, mixed with reflections on his own mind, memory, and motivation.
Profile Image for Johnny.
36 reviews1 follower
July 15, 2021
Not a bad book by any means - but its far away from great one. Memoirs are kinda ok, some interesting anecdotes and historical cases are present together with some nerdy stuff. But its not something you will return to.
Profile Image for Igbal.
19 reviews1 follower
September 30, 2017
A book about the great scholar, great person and very interesting life owner. The book definitely deserves my week to dedicate reading it.
197 reviews16 followers
June 18, 2018
It is just me, of course, but I happen to love exactly this type of autobiographical prose, where accurate accounts and amusing stories for nearly all members of the Manhattan Project are given.
100 reviews3 followers
July 6, 2018
From the co-holder on the patent on the hydrogen bomb, Ulam was a mathematicians mathematician. Especially good on his early life in Poland
135 reviews1 follower
July 2, 2021
Хороша автобіогрфія, цікавий опис Львівської математичної школи і Лос-Аламоса.
Мінус - це не Фейнман( ІМО накрутіша автобіогрфія науковця)
Profile Image for zosia.
7 reviews1 follower
December 28, 2023
Dosłownie czuję jakbym przeczytała plotkarę, ale o geniuszach hehe. Bardzo łatwa i przyjemna książka, jeśli kogoś interesują zaplecza projektu Manhattan I guess
Następny cel: Poincaré, zobaczymy czy jestem głupsza od dziesięcioletniego Stanisława :))
Profile Image for Ushan.
801 reviews70 followers
December 28, 2010
Ulam was born in 1909 in a wealthy assimilated polonophone Jewish family in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary. When he was a child, the city became Lwów, Poland; by the time it became Lviv, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, he was already in the United States. Ulam showed a talent for mathematics in school (I was surprised to read that he learned algebra from a German translation of Euler's Elements of Algebra), and joined the famous prewar Polish school of mathematics: he knew Banach, Steinhaus and Kuratowski. Prewar Poland also had a great school of cryptanalysis, but this was not publicly known until after this book was published. After Ulam got his Ph.D., there were too few open academic positions in Europe, so he went to the United States, teaching and doing research at Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Wisconsin. During the war Ulam worked at Los Alamos, then taught at the University of Southern California, and then went back to Los Alamos where he co-invented the (American) hydrogen bomb with Teller and Bethe. Apart from his work in pure mathematics (ergodic theory, measure theory etc.), which I cannot appreciate properly, Ulam co-invented cellular automata with his lifelong friend John von Neumann, started the study of branching processes (originally to model the chain reaction in an atomic bomb, though now it is mostly used in population biology), and invented the Monte Carlo method. Much of the book consists of memories of von Neumann; Ulam introduced von Neumann to his second wife; von Neumann invited Ulam to the United States (if Ulam had gone to the Soviet Union in 1935 instead, or stayed in Lwów, his life would have been very different); Ulam showed von Neumann Lwów and von Neumann showed him Budapest; von Neumann was fond of Jewish jokes (e.g. "The goyim had proved this theorem:...") and geeky jokes (the points in a plot don't seem to lie on a straight line - well, at least they lie on a plane). It must have been great to live in an amazing time and to befriend geniuses.
Profile Image for Ronald Wise.
829 reviews27 followers
July 24, 2011
While the mathematical and scientific specifics of this book would probably be intimidating - if not overwhelming - to most readers, the author relates his life story with plenty of enjoyable and easily understood material regarding his personal and professional relationships with many of the greatest minds of the 20th century. And perhaps most interesting was his willingness to frequently interrupt his own narrative to wonder about the nature of human memory, abstract thinking, scientific talent, and the mathematical mind versus the scientific mind.

As for the math and science, I struggled to recall what I had learned in college undergraduate courses and had to use the dictionary a few times to grasp the challenges and breakthroughs he enjoyed describing. The mathematics of sets and series were beyond my abilities of abstract thinking in college, and fortunately, when Ulam started to get into those topics, he tended to stop himself and dismiss the topic as beyond the scope of this book.

As with most of the biographies I've read of the brilliant minds that arose in Europe in early 20th century, I was most interested in how, in his youth, he found his avocation, or how it found him. I continue to be amazed at the superb educational opportunities then provided in continental Europe, but more so how quickly that system was destroyed by the Nazi regime and the mass exodus of many of the best minds to the United States.

Ulam has many stories to tell about how those Europeans came together on American campuses and en masse at Los Alamos. Some of his stories made me laugh out loud, especially ones involving jokes based on some estoric humor which he gladly explains. I don't know why, but I found the Los Alamos Jewish humor much funnier than the Catskills variety. Beyond the fun and games, this book presents a good summary of the critical points in the development of abstract thinking during his lifetime up to 1976.
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Author 2 books801 followers
December 1, 2008
One of the best of the Bomb Generation of physicists' autobiographies, right up there with Wigner's and superior to Teller's. This was the great golden age of quantum physics and development of mathematical methods for physics, two fields Ulam was uniquely poised to exploit. Necessary reading for any nuclear buffs due to Ulam's primary role in thermonuclear development (fission primary sparking radiation-driven ablation of a Li-D (Lithium-Deuteride) secondary is, after all, now known as the Teller-Ulam method), and extraordinarily literate (in that sense so associated with the Hungarian expatriates) to boot.

Adventures of a Mathematician is excerpted in The World Treasury of Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics, which is a fine collection in and of itself.
198 reviews11 followers
June 25, 2021
One of my favorite books for the life of being a mathematician. It's one of my books which I took notes.

Not heavy in axiomatic equations. Ulam was a colleague of my old officemate George (Michael, started the Supercomputing'88 series of conferences and an influential trip in the 1980s to see Japanese supercomputers; also did early LLL computer graphics (1950s)). Ulam was best known for polishing Teller's work on the super (code word), the thermonuclear device to implement fusion.

Autobiographical account of moving through the world of physicists.

One of my favorite set of notes involves thinking about mathematics and science in other languages like French, German, etc. (not English).
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